b'6. Who signs trade agreements? There is a potentially important aspect ofThis is potentially very important. Anybody what might be termed the choreographywho has been in business for just a of how EU trade agreements are actuallyfew minutes will know that it is more signed, in particular:straightforward and easier by a degree of magnitude to propose we should simply The Presidency designates a person to signcontinue our existing agreement rather (often the European Commissioner for Trade)than we should enter into an entirely new on behalf of the EU. Where the agreementnegotiation.covers topics that are the responsibility of the member states (and not shared at EU level), all member states need to sign as well.287. Security after BrexitSeveral UK politicians have put forward the proposition that UK securitydepends on the UK being in the EU. They do not explain why it is necessary for the UK to be in the EU political unionfor that is what it isin order to cooperate with other police forces and services. The fact is that the UK has cooperated with other European police and security services for long before the European Union even existed. Indeed, the UK has been a member of Interpol since 1923. As far as the author is aware, the UK was not in a political union with the USA. Nonetheless, cooperation between the USA and UK security and intelligence services is far greater, deeper and more intense (as well as probably more effective) than that with the similar bodies of EU member states. Tellingly, after the terrorist shootings in NovemberWhile Turkeys planned accession to the EU 2015, ex-President Sarkozy of France pointedis currently stalled,it has not been revoked. to a lack of, indeed inadequate, cooperationTurkey has direct porous borders with Iraq, between the Belgian and France intelligenceIran and Syria. How would this enhance the services. The conclusion is clear: being in aUKs security? The reality is clear: the UKs political union is not a guarantee of full andcontinuing membership of the EU does not effective cooperation.enhance our security but rather diminishes it.170'